Claire Thomas is a writer from Naarm/Melbourne. Her first novel was Fugitive Blue, which won the Dobbie Literary Award for women writers, and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Her second novel, The Performance, also longlisted for the Miles Franklin, was internationally published to critical acclaim, and shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Award Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in 2022. Claire holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne and has worked as a mentor, lecturer, supervisor and teacher for many years. On Not Climbing Mountains was written with the support of a residency at the Fondation Jan Michalski in Montricher, Switzerland.